Keystone / EPA / MOHAMMED BADRA
Egyptian-Palestinian political activist Ramy Shaath arrived in Paris on Saturday, visibly relieved following more than 900 days of detention in Egypt. But his family protested that he had been forced to renounce his Egyptian nationality in order to obtain his release.
“It’s huge. I’m very happy to be here,” he said in English a few minutes following leaving Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, his arm raised while holding the hand of his wife, the French Céline Lebrun, who had herself been expelled from Egypt at the time of her arrest.
“I spent the last two and a half years between prisons, places of enforced disappearance, some underground, others in solitary confinement, still others where I was with a lot of people subjected to particular treatment. inhuman, “he said.
Ramy Shaath was released “on the evening of (Thursday) January 6, following more than 900 days of arbitrary detention,” his family wrote in a statement. The Egyptian authorities then handed him over to a representative of the Palestinian Authority at Cairo airport, from where he boarded a plane to Amman. He landed in France on Saturday followingnoon.
Saying to share the “relief” of the wife of Ramy Shaath, French President Emmanuel Macron greeted, on Twitter, “the decision of the Egyptian authorities” and said “thank you to all those who played a positive role in this happy outcome” .
“For more than two years, the French authorities have been fully mobilized with the Egyptian authorities so that the situation of Mr. Shaath can find a positive outcome”, for his part commented the French Minister of Foreign Affairs in a press release.
“Inhumane conditions”
Ramy Shaath, 48, is a figure of the Egyptian revolution of 2011 and the coordinator in Egypt of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS, advocating the boycott of Israel in the fight once morest the occupation of the Palestinian Territories) movement. He had been detained since July 2019 for wanting to foment “unrest once morest the state”.
“They accused me of a lot of things and they said to me one day, ‘You are accused of being part of a terrorist organization.’ And I asked the guy, ‘What was the terrorist organization?’ He said, ‘Well, we’re not going to tell you that,’ “he quipped, mocking the lightness of the charges once morest him.
After “two and a half years of unjust detention in inhuman conditions”, his family regrets that the Egyptian authorities “forced” him to “renounce his Egyptian citizenship as a precondition for his release”. “No one should have to choose between their freedom and their citizenship,” she lamented in the statement.
60,000 prisoners of conscience
In December, five human rights organizations questioned French President Emmanuel Macron on the fate of this activist, son of Palestinian political leader Nabil Shaath.
A year earlier, during a visit to Paris by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on December 7, 2020, Mr. Macron said he had spoken to him regarding “individual cases”, including that of Ramy Shaath.
Egypt has more than 60,000 prisoners of conscience, according to NGOs. The United States believes that the country violates human rights in all areas and has consequently frozen 10% of its aid.
“Arbitrarily detained”
Ramy Shaath’s release does not end “the need for international action once morest the Egyptian government’s catastrophic human rights record,” 11 NGOs, including Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights, said. Man, or Democracy for the Arab world now.
Among the “countless prisoners” still “arbitrarily detained” in Egypt are many “peaceful activists, human rights defenders, lawyers, academics and journalists detained solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, “listed these organizations in a joint statement, calling on Cairo to release these opponents.
The relatives of Mr. Shaath thus said “to remain in solidarity with all those who continue to be unjustly detained” in Egypt. “We pray for the day when they too will be reunited with their loved ones once more.”
Another Egyptian human rights activist, researcher Patrick Zaki, was released in December following 22 months in detention but still faces up to five years in prison for “false information” over article denouncing discrimination once morest Christians .
Asked regarding his commitment, Ramy Shaath explained that he had not changed “two and a half years (in prison) later”. “I’m still so determined to keep going.”
